The valley of a thousand Kasbah
On the southern slopes of the High Atlas, one finds opulent, richly decorated, tall and slender earthen Kasbah, « ksours » or fortified villages, which are flanked with square bastions and crenulated towers? This Berber architecture fascinates and challenges time with its mysterious ochre silhouettes.
From the heart of these mountains, the Dades wadi or watercourse descends the slopes to the bottom of precipices and abrupt canyons. It then flows out, grand and serene, between the arid spurs of the Djebel Sagho and the impassable barrier of the High Atlas peaks all the way to Ouarzazate. All along its meandering course, where it causes oases and fertile fields to flower, the Berbers built their fortresses. In the gorges of the Dades, which seem to diss. into the purple rocks, the « ksours » – end by continuous and windowless walls –back up against the unreal folds of the dizzying rock face. Austere Kasbah, soberly decor, alternate with their colleagues, slender soaring towers. All have born witness to troubled past where one sheltered from my tribes behind thick walls. Seigniorial buildings of the powerful Berber dynasies these Kasbah were the residences of Arab chiefs who dwelled there while they waged two expeditionary wars.
As you leave the Dades gorges, you cupon the proud Boumalne Casbah at an altitude of 1,600 meters. The Dades wadi branches off here toward the west. A little further along on its banks, El Kelâa M’Gouna comes into view. Thousands of wild roses spread their delightfully purgent. scent over fields of barley and corn. These flowers are cooked each year in the spring, distilled in place and transfo med into rosewater.
Between El Kelaa M’Gouna and Ouarzazate sits the rich palm grove of Skoura, founded in the 12′ » century by Yacoub el Mansour, which stretches over many kilometrs. It is traversed by a net work of narrow dirt paths which can be explored on bicycle or on the back of a mule. Surrounded by rose plantations at small luxurious gardens, unusual earthen silhouettes spring up between the palm trees. El Kebbaba, Dar Aichil, Dar Ait Sot Amongst this harmoniously designed li. bah, capped with elegant bride towers u engraved arcades, riddled with small niches and pigeonholes with cbevron-topped rhom-bus-shaped motifs; one finds the imposing Kasbah of Amerhidil. Built at the turn of the century, it is still inhabited. Protected by eroded, low, dry stone wall, its tall bouses, welded to one another by shared walls, form a rampart. This is interrupted by many breaks and by jagged towers. It is so perforated that the light pierces the sha-dows.
The valley of Dades is notched by adjacent valleys, more difficult to reach, which stretch right up to the foot of the impassable sum¬mits, like that of the 4,071 meter high M’Goun or Mount Anrhomer, which peaks at more than 3,600 meters. In these footbills, magnificent Casbah sit, populated by vast families, half way up, the rich Toundoute and the luminous Assermo Casbah are distinguished by the lime makeup they wear, which brightens the dusky hue of their puddle clay geometric tattoos.
Past Ouarzazate, the majestic fortified village of Ait Benhaddou stands on the other side of the Mellah wadi, backing on to a pinkish sandstone bill. All the harmony of this village and its enigmatic beauty reside in its tangle of houses and its red and ochre puddle clay Kasbah bristling with crenels and scored by geometric designs. Alas, today, only a few inhabitants still remain to face the progressive deterioration of the walls and mud roofs. Of the hundred families that previously made the « ksar » or fortress their home, notore than jour or five still live there. Classified as part of the architectural patrimony of the world, the ksar of Ait Benhaddou remains one of the most poetic villages of this region.